Colorado Rapids head coach Robin Fraser often points to intangible qualities as driving forces behind his squad’s better nights.
They were certainly on display Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, as Colorado avenged last year’s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs loss with a 2-0 win over the visiting Portland Timbers.
Reduced to 10 men after Diego Rubio’s night produced a 30th-minute free kick goal and second-half red card, they held firm before Mark-Anthony Kaye’s curling effort in the 95th minute sealed all three points.
“Honestly, I think that’s us. That’s our team,” Fraser said. “When we play with that sort of conviction, we get good results.”
The victory moved Colorado’s unbeaten regular-season home streak to 21 games, and perhaps most importantly snapped a five-game winless skid. They’d gone 0W-2L-3D over a difficult stretch, a setback after two early-season wins seemed to nip their premature Concacaf Champions League exit in the bud.
In defender Auston Trusty’s eyes, the complete performance was indicative of Rapids soccer at its core.
“It feels great to get the W and get a shutout,” the Arsenal-bound center back said. “Overall, I think this is what the team needed. We were fighting hard, we were doing our thing. We just didn't get the result in the past few games, but to get a result at home and get back to our group, get back to our ways, it just feels amazing.”
Colorado won the Western Conference’s regular-season title a season ago behind a club-record 61 points. That created lofty expectations for 2022, and the jury’s still out on if their follow-up bid will meet or surpass that standard.
But for the time being, the Rapids looked more like themselves. They pushed the Timbers to three games winless in the process, overcoming the odds to record a huge victory.
“In the face of whatever was happening out there, we were very resilient,” Fraser said. “We just kept going, and in the end, really, really proud of how we handled it, even being down a man. I thought the commitment was unbelievable and then to obviously score a goal being down a man late in the game to seal it was incredibly satisfying.
“But I can’t say enough about the effort and the intelligence because it is one thing to work hard, but it is another thing to work hard and smart. And I thought the commitment overall was spectacular.”
